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Why not purpleheart for fretboards?


meyhna'ch

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Ajcoholic is right when he says it's cheap - about $4 bf. My favorite hardwood supplier always has tons of this stuff in all kinds of lengths, widths, and thicknesses. And when I say tons, I mean it. The stuff is pretty heavy, and definitely strong.

 

When it's freshly cut and finished, it's beautiful, but turns the lovely color of mud over time. Finished with a good UV sealer and clearcoat, you might be able to extend the color "life" a bit longer. Helps if you keep it in the case when not playing.

 

For fingerboards, I suppose it would be OK. My preference is always for other woods, especially the ebonies and Honduran Rosewood. Blackwood would be great, but I really don't want to pay through the nose for it.

 

I've heard acoustic guitars made of Purpleheart, and they always sound like the proverbial wooden spoon hitting the barrel. Very dead sounding. Probably a high "Q" damping factor in that stuff.

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Originally posted by ajcoholic

I'd loke to know more about the glass board. I have quite a bit of experience working with glass/carbon and other composites in my other hobbies (large RC model aircraft construction, and other stuff like strip canoe building) What is the board made up of? Unidirectional carbon & epoxy? Or some sort of heat cured resin? I would like to experiment with somethinglike that if I had time...


Tell me more about your bass project!


AJC

 

bass project? this is guitar yo! :p

 

well, essentially, i can send a neck to http://www.fretlessguitar.com/guitarsite/home.html

 

and for a whopping 499$ they do it for me...

 

i'm thinking a used ibanez RGA for the base guitar.

 

put a sustainer in the neck, and either get the glass done, or just the fret slots filled, lower the nut, put a REAL dimarzio in the bridge, and i'm good to go.

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Originally posted by meyhna'ch



I'm a little confused about this sentence AJ. Do you mean it wouldn't be able or that it would be able to handle duty as a fretboard?

 

 

Sorry for my bad grammar... I meant it should easily handle duty as a fretboard, being such a tough wood.

 

My only dislike of purpleheart is that I manage to get some nasty splinters whenever I handle the stuff.

 

People certainly charge some crazy money for specialty stuff. I could vacuum wrap a neck or do a fretboard in carbon or glass for pretty cheap.

 

AJC

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This is out of left field, mostly because I don't want to start a thread about this (it really doesn't merit one).... But has anyone used as a fretboard ironwood (or any wood with a density greater than 1g/cm^3 - it'll sink in water- ?)

 

I could imagine it would eat up blades and bits like nothing else, but something that hard would make an excellent fretless bass neck...

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Originally posted by pink freud

bass project? this is guitar yo!
:p

well, essentially, i can send a neck to
http://www.fretlessguitar.com/guitarsite/home.html


and for a whopping 499$ they do it for me...


i'm thinking a used ibanez RGA for the base guitar.


put a sustainer in the neck, and either get the glass done, or just the fret slots filled, lower the nut, put a REAL dimarzio in the bridge, and i'm good to go.

You can do it with marine epoxies as well and it would be way cheaper than $500.

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